A couple of questions rolled into one...

[iamnotkirk]

This is my first post so I figure I'll do just one long one instead of a bunch of smaller ones... I have a few questions about the care of my female BP, Jasmine. I bought her from a reputable local petstore in November and they told me she was born in April so she was approx. 6-7 months old. Everything has been going good since then. I've read through this site and added to her setup what I found was needed as my finance's (and fiance) have allowed...
My setup for her is: 20gallon Long glass aquarium, screen top (I have covered about 3/4 of it with aluminum foil, 1 layer on each side of the screen secured with electrical tape), as far as heating goes I have a CHE and a UTH positioned on one side of the tank, both controlled by the same rheostat. I usually only have to turn it up to just past low to get temp's of 90-94 hot side (inside the hide) and 80-82 ambient temps [the digital thermom/hygrom unit i got from walmart (with no probe) is setup on the cool side and the digital thermom probe (separate unit) is stuck up inside the warm side hide]. Both hides are the same, medium black plastic igloo looking ones. the water dish i got was the largest rock-ish looking one at the store because my house is terribly dry in the winter, and i'm using bed-a-beast as my substrate. i also have a rock i got from the pet store (cleaned w/bleach, rinsed thoroughly, and air-dried before i put it in and whenever i clean the tank), to assist with sheds... i cleaned everything before i put it in with her and i'm on a once a month, take everything out, bleach it, change the bedding schedule... with spot cleaning as needed.
So how does that sound? I keep looking at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Target, etc... for a better dig. thermom/hygrom w/a probe, but being winter in central New York I don't think they have very much demand for them...
My feeding schedule for her currently is 1 or 2 mice about every 5-7 days. 1 or 2 depends on where I go to get them and the size they give me... Soon I want to move her to small rats and when i am making the transition to that i will change her to F/T, i tried last week but after letting the frozen mouse thaw in the water i had microwaved for 3 minutes i pulled it out and it's entrails were hanging out. there must have been an injury prior to freezing cause i can't see where soaking in warm water would cut it's stomach open... but i'll use cooler water and let it soak for less time tomorrow.
I feel pretty confident about my current setup, but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The question I had was about feeding time... whenever she eats it's always an event in my home. my daughter and i sit down on the bed in front of her tank and watch her... this past monday though, after she had ate the first live mouse we were watching her, standing up, maybe 8-10inches at most away from her tank, and she was staring at us. when i moved she acted kind of startled and jumped a little. the week prior to that i fed her one, waited like 10-15minutes, then gave her another mouse... (they were smaller) i was thinking that since she was fed twice last week and she was staring at us through her aquarium was she sensing our heat signature, she was in the "S" position while staring... I comprehend that they sense heat w/the pit's above their mouth (below too maybe?!?) but what i'm not understanding is how she senses it... is it like an infrared view similar to what we see on TV when a police helicopter is picking up the heat signature on a suspect running after a car chase? or what...

sorry for the long post, work is a little slow today... and thanks.

[iamnotkirk]

damn that is long... at least it gives everyone else in my position (bored at work) something to do...

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Setup up sounds greats, you definietly did your homework now as far as feeding, from my experience I have noticed that prey thawed directly in warm water compare to being left thawing at room temp have a tendency to explode more. However it should still be a rare occurrence and if not I would question the quality of your F/T

I feed F/T myself I just let the prey out about 1 hour (more or less) depending on the size of the prey and let them thaw out in the snake room, which also serve as pre-scenting the room. Then what you can do is warm it up by using a baggie and submerging it in warm water, you can also use a hair blower to warm up the prey.

BP stay in a feeding mode for quite a while after feeding which explain the posture she had and she could have also perceive you as a predator while being in that vulnerable position.

[frankykeno]

Sounds like things are going along very well!

Snakes are so fascinating in that they see, hear and smell so well using their senses quite differently than we mammals do. They may not have external ear openings but they do have the internal mechanisms of hearing and can easily pick up very slight vibrations through things like their lower jaw bone and translate that into information about something moving in their vicinity. Their sense of smell is amazing. That forked tongue can not only transmit information to the Jacobson's organ in the roof of their mouth but also discern such minute differences in amount of smell so they will know for instance that a prey they are tracking just turned right not left. Their ability to sense temperature (those labial pits are handy things!) is said to be as minute as 0.2 degrees difference. As far as their sight, some things I've read say they only see well through heat sensing infra-red information gathered by their other senses and their sense of sight as we know it is very limited, other sources say that they likely see far better than we know and are able to switch back and forth from full spectrum sight to infra-red with ease. It is definitely proven though that in the end they rely on that heat sensing sight for hunting far more than anything else (an especially good adaptation since most BP's in the wild would be hunting in full dark inside tunnels in termite mounds).

Funny side note here, I was reading about infra-red vision in snakes and one thing science is trying to figure out is how snakes can use infra-red without a big heat issue. There is nothing that humans have designed thus far that has the complexity of their ability but doesn't produce huge heat problems. Mother Nature is a pretty smart broad isn't she LOL.

Your snake was probably reacting to your movement and big heat signature. Just after they've eaten a lot of snakes are still very hyped up. They might not be hungry still but they are their hunting instincts are keyed up and they will react to movement/heat in range of them.